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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26303719">The Abducted Kid Job</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Firestar84/pseuds/Little_Firestar84'>Little_Firestar84</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hitter &amp; Chemist [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Leverage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Babies, Baby sitting, F/M, Irish Mob, Kidnapping, One Shot, Parenthood, Sequel, Unofficial Sequel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:42:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,205</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26303719</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Firestar84/pseuds/Little_Firestar84</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Guys, I think we may have a problem. I don’t think we really got what the bad guys were stealing at all...”<br/>When Leverage  steals from  the Mccarthy family to give back the money they had taken from their victims, the mastermind, the grifter, the hacker, the the hitter and the chemist didn't expect for Parker to get back home... with a newborn baby boy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alec Hardison/Parker, Eliot Spencer/Original Female Character(s), Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hitter &amp; Chemist [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911169</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Abducted Kid Job</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Sequel of "The Wedding Date Job", also available here. Not really necessary to read it, as it's just the introduction of The Chemist to the team, and in Eliot's romantic life.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“So,
our clients’ money is
basically already gone, which means that, if we want for them to get
anything
back from this, we’ll have to, well, steal from the
McCarthy’s.” Nathan claps
his hands together, looking a little too smug, and yet, unsure. He
scratches
the back of his head, trying to work out a plan that would work for
everyone-
the clients, owners of a shop in the city who were forces to pay
protection
money they couldn’t really afford, and his crew.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Everyone
stare in stern
silence at the screens in the meeting room in the back of the brewpub,
but no
one dare to say a
word. Their looks
speak volumes, and besides, that conversation has already happened way
too many
times already, and they all know that Nathan doesn’t really
need a repeat
performance- once he makes up his mind, he’ll go through with
whatever he
promised he would do. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Crushed
by the unsettling
silence, only Becks finds the courage to rise her hand to speak. She
feels a
little like she was a schoolgirl, dealing with an overbearing professor
who no
one has the courage to stand up against because they all know it would all been useless,
as he would never change
his mind, firm and granitic in his positions. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“I’m
sorry, but, are talking
about <i>that </i>McCarthy family, right?
The, Irish mob family? From <i>that </i>mob,
right? The real mob. Not just rumors. Career criminals, bloodthirsty,
vengeful,
lethal and who don’t really have trouble taking away whoever
does them wrong?”
At her side, Eliot, crosses arms, bites his lips before he could say
something
he would eventuallyregret-
things he
has already said enough times in the past and that Nathan
doesn’t want to hear
again anyway – and just nods, showing the fakest smile to his
girlfriend. “Ok.
So, just out of curiosity, is it something you do on a regular basis?
Because
when I signed up for this, nobody told me anything about the
mob.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Mob,
mafia, triad, the
government…you sure you want the full list,
sweetheart?” Eliot looks at her as
to beg for mercy, asks for pardon, and Becks sighs, resigned, knowing
that it’s
too late to walk away- and that Nate would just try to change her mind
if she
went and repeated who they are dealing with, exactly. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Nathan
just shrugs, proud and
smug and satisfied with himself- too much for his own good.
“All right, we know
they are planning to steal something. So, we steal it back, sell it to
the
highest bidder and get our clients their money back, framing the
McCarthy’s in
the process. All clear?”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>The
plan makes perfect sense-
although it sounds much more like a rough draft than an actual plan to
begin
with. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Becks
sighs, resigned, with
the distinct feeling in the back of her head that things will
definitely go
very, very badly before getting better, and that whatever Nathan is up
to,
things will get out of hand. Definitely.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <i>
    <span>“Guys,
I think we may have a problem. I don’t think we really got
what the bad guys
were stealing at all.” </span>
  </i>
  <span>Parker
says through the comms, as, back at
the base, Nathan and Hardison are watching at the screens with a city
map and
checking surveillance, not really wanting to get busted by anyone, nor
the
McCarthy’s or the police.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Parker,
can you still get it,
or is it too big to carry?” Nathan checks his watch, musing.
“Because you only
have another few minutes before the guards get back, and I
don’t want to blow
Eliot’s cover yet, if possible- we may still need him inside
the organization.”
</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Inside
the car, as she waits
for the master thief to get back from her number so that they could
flee, Becks
almost sees Parker shrugs with nonchalance. The scanner warns her of a
nearby
robbery in process, that could make them end up straight into the
waiting arms
of a small army of cops. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <i>
    <span>“Parker,
grab whatever that McCarthy bastard stile and shove it into that damn
duffel
bag of yours in the next two minutes, or besides the
McCarthy’s, we’ll be
swamped with cops here, and I think we all know I’m way too
delicate to end up
in jail. Do you have any idea what they do in jail to the likes of me?
nothing
niece, that’s what. Not to mention that we seem to have made
enemies of all the
major criminal organizations in the whole word without my
knowledge!”</span>
  </i>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <i>
    <span>“All
right, if you say so…”</span>
  </i>
  <span>
Parker simply replies.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>In
the background, Hardison
and Eliot argue, about howdramatic,
and
just like Hardison Becks sounds when she rants about not wanting to end
up in
jail, how it’s so not true and, <i>anyway,
we both know she is the smart one in your couple. </i></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>When
Eliot orders Hardison to
take it back, Becks, in the car, lifts an eyebrow, and remembers her
boyfriend
that, if he want to repeat what he just told, he should really go and
get the
couch ready.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“So,
we are dying of curiosity
here. What was it? What did you steal from McCarthy? Jewels? Money?
Art? A
batch of drugs? C’mon, parker, show us already!”
Jumping existed as a kid,
Sophie rubs her hands, conspiratorially, while Parker looks the duffer
on the
table mischievously, like she knew a secret nobody else did. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“I
don’t know. It kind of
feels wrong to keep calling this an it, but, you know, it’s
just that the
colors were neutral, and you said we were in an hurry, so I really
didn’t have
any time to check it out…”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Becks
swallows, eyes as big as
saucer, already foreshadowing impending doom, imagining that this was
the
moment she wastalking
about when she
mentioned the expression things getting out of hands/going badly.
“Parker… what was is that you needed
checking out?” She says, despite fearing asking the question
to begin with. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Slowly,
Parker opens the
zipper further,and
pulls the flaps of
the duffel bag apart, revealing what she had hidden inside. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Is
that…” Eliot starts, eyes
wide open. “Parker, tell me that’s a very realistic
doll and not…” Eliot hasn’t
yet finished the sentence that the newborn baby erupts into an
incessant
crying. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Yep.
Definitely a real baby.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“There’s
been no report of a
missing baby matching the description of<i>
our</i> baby in the whole state.” Hardison massages his
forehead as he looks
between the screens and the box where they made a make-shift cradle. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Damn
it, Hardison, stop
calling it our baby! It’s…. it’s
creepy!” Eliot hisses between clenched teeth,
making Hardison rolls his eyes. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Well,
and you stop calling
the baby an it! You’ll give him a complex. He is a boy, he
doesn’t have a name,
so why can’t we just go with <i>our
baby </i>for
now? Maybe we should call him Junior- you know, if you try really hard,
he kind
of has your eyes.” Hardison glances mischievous at his long
time comrade in
arms, smiling like a naughty boy. “Unless you don’t
want to, because, deep
down, you are afraid of responsibility? Something Becks should know
about?”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>The
aforementioned woman rolls
her eyes, as Eliot mockingly (sort of) slaps the hacker in the back of
the
head, almost starting an argument that would last days, best case
scenario-
it’s been years and Eliot is still pissed that Hardison
wouldn’t admit he ate
his sandwich, after all.“Guys,
don’t
you think that normal people would try
to stay away from trouble when the mob is concerned? The parents of
this kid are
probably waiting for instructions and they may not even know yet that
their kid
disappeared <i>again</i>.”They turns to look at the
baby, giggling with
his toothless grin as he holds a purple dinosaur puppet gently provided
by
Parker.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>(They
really don’t want to
know how and why parker has a purple puppet dinosaur. Not at all.) </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“She
is right. If we look for
the standard channels, we may never know why Junior truly
is.” Hardison sighs,
saddened, remembering all too well what it feels right growing up
without real
parents- even if his Nana was the best person in the world. Maybe, just
maybe,
there is someone out there crying out for this child, desperate, not
knowing
what happened of him. “Meanwhile, what do we do?”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“We
are not putting Junior in
foster care.” Parker muses, sad and determined, her mind
going back to her earliest
memories, the struggle of a family home, of wanting her just for the
money and
never for the love. “We need to give him baby things.
Clothes, diapers, toys…
oh, we could train him to be a stealing hacking crazy scientist ninja,
he could
be the beginning of the next generation of Leverage
International!” </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“We
are not keeping Junior…
the baby!” Becks hisses and opens her arms wide looking at
Eliot who reprimands
her with just a glance, as she was to say, <i>don’t
blame me, it’s their fault. </i>“But, Parker
is right. If we turn the baby over
to social services, even if they were to find his parents, if they
hadn’t
reported the child missing they would hardly get him back. We need to
keep
digging and meanwhile, we need to get some stuff for the
baby.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Hands
on his hips, Eliot turns
to face his girlfriend, ready to lecture her, read her the riot act and
see if
at least her would see reason. “Do you honestly think that
nobody would notice
that there’s suddenly a screaming toddler here?”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Oh,
please. I’ll do my best interpretation
of the overly-worried sister, tell them that Maddie had to go to
Britain with
Daniel because his mother is oh, so sick, and they thought that Daniel
Junior
was just too small to flight, so they entrusted him with us.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“<i>You.” </i>He mumbles. “I
don’t want any part in any of this, all right?
You want to keep the baby <i>for now?</i>
You look after him. And we’re not rising him, and we are not
calling him Eliot
Junior!” He shouts quietly as he makes to leave, avoiding
slamming the doors
just because they are now automated.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“That’s
okay, he’ll come
around,” Backs shrugs. “Meanwhile, see if you can
hack into some baby registry
here in town. It’s time for Parker and I to do a little
shopping at the
expenses of some posh rich guy.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Over
exited at the idea of stealing
(although she would have preferred the regular kind of stealing-
evading
security systems, lasers, avoiding motions sensors, alarms, climbing up
some
building and maybe through some ventilation grilles), Parker jumps on
the spot
like a little girl on a sugar high. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>While
swiping the credit card
of the rich posh idiot, making it looks like that the purchases were
related to
the baby list of Stewart Michael Joseph Arlington the third, two
strong,
muscular, sun-kissed arms grab the majority of the purchases from the
check
register, avoiding most of the effort to the two women- and taking care
of not
breaking anything, studying the purchases with care as they really
mattered and
they were truly his.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>"I'll
load this stuff on
the car, honey. You take your time." Eliot says smiling, after giving
her
a quick, chaste kiss on the neck (she was right, he has come around and
decided
to keep the baby for a while). He even gave cleaned himself up nicely,
he even
fixed his hair (like when he pretends to be a scientist of some kind)
and put
on a pair of glasses. And he is wearing a proper shirt, for once, not
jeans or
flannel. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>"Your
husband is really
handsome, you know? And you are so lucky, not many dads bother to go
shopping
with their wives for their babies. As if they were just ours!”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Becks
blushes, mumbling a
strangled than you,unable
to deny or
change the mind of the saleswoman, while Parker laughs, all excited,
acting as
if they were truly considering keeping the child forever, and rising
him as the
baby of the four of them.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Junior
is peacefully sleeping
in his brand new crib when Eliot surprises her melancholy watching over
the baby,
in the middle of the night. Becks is sitting on the couch, head bent, a
distant
looking a bit lost and sad. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>"Hey,
everything all
right?" He asks her, sitting next to her and wrapping her in his arms,
stroking
her hair with his lips, kiss after tender kiss.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>"No.
Not really."
Now, she knows. She knows why Eliot was so opposed to keeping the
child: not
only did he not want them to get attached to Junior, but he didn't want
to give
<i>her</i> false hopes, to create dreams
destined to be shattered the moment they clashed with the harsh reality.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>(Junior
isn’t their kid, and
they’ll never be able to be parents, to this or any other
kid. It’s just not
their life. Not for people like them, at least.)</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>"Darling..."
He
begins to say, but turning in his embrace, she shuts him up, placing
two
delicate fingers on </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>"Just
hug me,
please." </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>The
little boy’s name is
Andrew Carlisle, they learn after some digging almost two weeks after
stealing
the little kid.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>His
father got sick when his
mother was just a few months pregnant with him, his medical expenses
weren’t
covered by his meager insurance (oldest story of the world- it crushes
Nathan,
and for days he barely says a word to them, and he acts his irrational
old
self) and to save his life, his wife got persuaded to borrow money from
the
McCarthy’s resident loan sharks.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>But
the bills had kept coming
in, the interest had built up, and after selling everything she and her
husband
owned, just when he was finally starting to feel a little better, the
McCarthy’s had demanded the immediate restitution of the
entire sum. When the
Carlisle family had been forced to admit that they had nothing left,
the right
hand of the big man in charge had laid his eyes on little Andrew, and
see an
opportunity for a new venture. So, they had kidnapped little Andrew, in
order
to sell him to the highest bidder. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Luckily,
Leverage Incorporated
had stumbled upon the baby before it was too late- before he got lost,
before
he ended up in the hands of some lunatic who would hurt him, and now,
little
Andrew was back home with his parents, all the stuff his
“aunties and uncles”
had bought him, and his parents had received some pocket money to keep
the
business afloat, make sure that the baby’s dad would receive
all the necessary
cures and that they would be taken care of for a very long time. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Letting
it go of “their” baby
had been bitter-sweet for all of them.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Nathan
had been saddened,
loosing (although in a different way) another baby boy, and Sophie had
been
there for him, his stone, his anchor in an ocean of chaos and
desperation and
memories that menaced to swallow him whole. Parker had been
disappointed, after
having dived into the role of the fairy godmother, really believing she
had the
first member of the next generation of thieves in her hands. Hardison
had been
glad to know that Andrew was beloved, and that his parents were
desperate, but
didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to get him
back. Eliot had been the
tough guy (or at least, he had pretended to), he had mumbled something
but it
was crystal clear that
after two weeks
spent actually <i>being</i> a parent for
the
little guy that he was sorry to have to go back to being "just" an
hitter. Rebecca, who Eliot had surprised so many nights watching over
the baby,
who had fed him, cuddled him, cradled him, whom she had hummed old
lullabies to,
had not said a single word. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>But,
with her teeth clenched,
she had been unable to hold back her tears.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>***</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“You
know I wouldn't hold you
back if you decided to leave because that's what you want, don't
you?”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>Rebecca,
sitting in the bed
she had been sharing with Eliot for a long time, lifts her tired eyes
from the
book on which she has tried in vain to concentrate for hours. His smile
is sad,
but sincere, and like the first time he kissed her to give her
strength, the
woman knows that the only thing he wants for her is her well-being, her
happiness. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>She
takes off her glasses and
gently places the book on the bedside table - they are both passionate
about
order and precision, after all - and when Eliot approaches her, she
ties her
arms around his neck, running her fingers through his soft, rebellious
long
hair, letting them tickle her skin as she draws him to her and kisses
him.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“Becks,
honey, if you need
time, space…” He tells her sweetly, while she
snuggles up against his naked
chest, letting herself be soothed by Eliot's regular heartbeat.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“I
wasted ten years of my life
chasing after you and now you think I'm going to let you go? Forget it,
man.
Now I'm going to be stuck with you for the rest of your days. Until
death do us
part, even without a ring.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>He
snickers as he caresses her
back with languid and calm circular movements. “I knew there
was a good reason
why I love you, honey.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>They
stay in silence for the
longest time, then, Becks kisses the spot just right above his heart-
there’s a
scar there. from an old injury that had almost gotten him killed many
years
before, before he even joined Nathan and Co. “I didn't think
that understanding
that you want something and understanding that you will never have it
could
hurt so much.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“You
still have time to…”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>“I
know,” she answers,
sighing. “But, you're the only person I'd like to have this
with, Eliot, and I
know you'll never settle down - no more than this, at least. And so
will I,
with our past and what we do.We
help
people, and we go against... practically the whole world, and
that’s what we’ve
always been doing, our whole lives, one way or another. But we've been
lucky,
becauseSophie has
Nathan, Parker has
Hardison, and you and me... we found each other. You are <i>my</i>
family, and they are<i> our</i>
family, and that's okay. That's enough for me. But, for a while I
played the
mother of a child who had the same eyes as you, and I think I'm going
to need
some time to feel better. To... to recover.”</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>He
agrees, without saying a
word - Eliot can be of a few words when he wants to be, sometimes he doesn't even
need to talk at all,
especially with Becks. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">
  <span>She
falls asleep, reassured by
his pulse and breath, while Eliot runs his fingers through his
partner's red
hair and closes his eyes, trying to remove from the front of his mind
the image
of his beloved, dressed in white, holding a newborn baby with red hair
and blue
eyes.</span>
</p>
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